


A Riddle

by Barkour



Series: Fe [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-04 21:31:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barkour/pseuds/Barkour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper forced a straight face. “Let’s be reasonable,” she said. “This isn’t the first time someone’s cried while peeing on you.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Riddle

**Author's Note:**

> Don't look at me.

Jarvis was first to say, “Welcome home, Miss Potts,” but Abby—little Abby with her dark curls and her toothy grin—was the first to Pepper’s arms. She’d a red shirt on instead of the blue one she was wearing in the morning when Pepper left, but that wasn’t unusual, and anyway, it was that darling face Pepper wanted and not the shirt. Pepper swung her purse to the floor and stooped to catch Abigail up, her arm around Abby’s waist and her other hand cupping her head.

“Did you miss me? Did you miss Mommy?” 

Pepper dropped fleeting kisses across Abby’s face, and Abby—her face wrinkling as she laughed—wriggled to get away, then, when Pepper eased her grip to let Abigail lean back, she threw herself forward as if for fear Pepper would put her down. Those fine curls brushed Pepper’s throat. Laughing herself, Pepper bent to kiss her daughter’s brow. That was where she stopped, with her lips at Abigail’s temple.

As if summoned by her thinking his name, Tony crossed from the airy sitting room into the entry way. He had a harangued look on his face—he started his greeting with, “Oh, thank god”—and a stain on his muscle shirt that Pepper, with only one child under her belt, strongly suspected was not spit-up.

“Tony,” she said as he walked to her, “why does our daughter smell like she does?”

“Well, that’s an interesting question,” said Tony. He rubbed at his chest, the old tic he’d never got rid of. “First let me present you with a riddle.”

She arched her eyebrows and smiled and repeated, “A riddle,” knowing he’d hear the sarcasm under the sweetness.

He did, and as always, he took the bait and ran with it. “Yes,” he said, “and it’s a good one. Actually Abigail gave it to me.”

“Abigail did?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, and he tickled Abigail’s nape. Their daughter squirmed like she was the fish on a hook and not Tony. “She’s pretty smart. Takes after her mother. You know, whoever she is.”

“Tony,” said Pepper.

“Oh, right,” said Tony brightly, “that’s you,” and he leaned forward to kiss Pepper.

His beard itched at her, and his lips were warm. He smelled like grease, too. Pepper held her smile.

“What’s the riddle, Tony?”

“Okay,” he mumbled against her cheek, “you’re no fun. Well, can _you_ guess who forgot to put a diaper on the baby before putting her down for a nap?” And he threw out jazz hands.

She’d meant to keep her smile in place as a shield. If she gave him room, Tony would put all his considerable energy into distracting her from finding out why it was Abigail’s hair smelled like engine grease and oil. Then he widened his eyes and stuck his hands out, and she said “What? Tony!” and then laughed in his face.

He dropped his hands. “Well, after her nap, she was crying,” he said, pointing to one imaginary column in the air, “so I figured I’d rock her,” another column, “but that didn’t work, so when she peed on me she was still crying. So it went pretty well.”

“I’m going to assume,” said Pepper, fighting to set the giggles aside, “this isn’t your first shirt either.”

“Absolutely not.” His finger turned on Abigail. “And by the way, I liked that shirt, and now it’s in the incinerator, thanks to you.”

Abigail tried to bite his finger, and he snatched his hand away.

Pepper forced a straight face. “Let’s be reasonable,” she said. “This isn’t the first time someone’s cried while peeing on you.”

His nose wrinkled—for a moment the resemblance between Tony and their daughter was so strong Pepper’s heart caught—and then his lips blew out and he, too, was laughing helplessly.

“And none of this,” Pepper said, raising her voice, though damn him, he was making her want to burst out again, “explains why she smells like the inside of one of your cars.”

“Well, because she _was_ inside it.”

Pepper hitched Abigail on her hip. “In the engine? She was inside the engine?”

“Not while it was _on_ ,” he said.

“And is that supposed to make it better?”

“How else is she supposed to learn how it works?” he asked.

“She’s sixteen months, Tony,” Pepper protested. “She can’t even put together sentences yet.”

“That doesn’t mean she can’t put together a car,” he said.

Pepper screwed her mouth up at him and waited. Finally Tony relented.

“All right,” he said, “I’m sorry, it’s just—she was crying and I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Music,” said Pepper. “Play with her. With her toys, not yours. She can help you in the shop when she’s older.”

“Two?” he suggested.

“Ten,” Pepper countered.

He cradled Abigail’s downy head, and Abigail, blowing bubbles over Pepper’s shoulder, said, “Mama. Mama.”

“We’ll figure it out,” said Tony, and Pepper hoisted their daughter higher and leaned in to finally kiss Tony back. His lips parted. She felt his little finger brush her shoulder, and near her ear, Abby grumbled at the squeeze.

“I’m taking her to work with me tomorrow,” Pepper murmured into the kiss.

He pulled away. “Not fair,” he said, “not fair, you are abusing your power over me—”

“Jarvis,” Pepper called, “what’s on the menu today?”

“—and I don’t appreciate it, you know, I slave away all day here at the house while you’re off in your fancy suits at your fancy job—”

She turned on her flat heel and he stepped back, so they didn’t break their noses on each other. His eyelashes fluttered; the suddenness of her turn had arrested him. If she exhaled, she could see a muscle in his cheek shiver at the heat of her breath.

“Tony," she said, and that muscle in his cheek trembled.

He was quick to answer. “Yes, Miss Potts?”

She smiled and breached the distance to kiss the tip of his nose.

“I love you,” she said. 

"That was below the belt," said Tony.


End file.
